According to reports on Feb. 12 citing ‘people familiar with the matter,’ the SEC plans to take action against Paxos over the Binance stablecoin, BUSD. The WSJ report stated that the financial regulator issued a letter to Paxos, known as a Wells notice, to inform it of possible enforcement action. The Wells notice enables companies...Read More
All eyes in the crypto community have been on the SEC and its decision to pursue certain crypto staking offerings in the States. After Kraken, many believe Coinbase will be next to have to settle with the regulator, which is why the largest US-based exchange decided to address the matter. Our Products Are Not Securities:...Read More
Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of the blockchain payment company that fights the US SEC in court over the status of XRP, believes there’s a lot of positive news in terms of crypto adoption worldwide. He made these comments following the recent crackdown from the Securities and Exchange Commission against Kraken and its crypto staking services....Read More
Following the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s crackdown against Kraken’s staking service on Thursday, one of its members is railing against her agency’s decision. Hester Peirce – aka ‘Crypto Mom’ – issued a statement on Wednesday arguing that the SEC’s enforcement action is neither “efficient nor fair,” and that exchanges were never given a realistic...Read More
On Feb. 9, Gary Gensler and his SEC took aim at Kraken and its staking-as-a-service products. The regulator claims that the U.S. crypto exchange is offering unregistered securities through its staking services. Consequently, Kraken suspended staking-as-a-service, and crypto markets have slumped. On Feb. 10, popular analyst and trader Alex Krüger put a positive spin on...Read More
Kraken’s generated trading volume for the past 24 hours increased by almost 15%. The surge contrasts with the company’s issues prompted by the recent SEC investigation and the consecutive termination of staking services. Data extracted from CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko revealed that Kraken’s 24h trading volume stands at around $757 million, or a 14% increase. Based on numerous factors,...Read More
Bitcoin fell back to $22,000 on Thursday shortly after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) laid charges against Kraken for the unregistered offering of its staking services. Kraken agreed to halt the service and pay $30 million in disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties, without admitting to or denying any wrongdoing. According to the SEC’s...Read More
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is probing major American crypto exchange Kraken over its unregistered securities offerings to U.S. investors. The investigation has gotten to an advanced stage, and Kraken will likely settle with the SEC in the coming days, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Kraken Under Scrutiny...Read More
On Feb. 9, Brian Armstrong cautioned that they were hearing rumors that the SEC would like to “get rid of crypto staking in the U.S. for retail customers.” He said he hopes that is not the case as “I believe it would be a terrible path for the U.S. if that was allowed to happen.”...Read More
As the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues vying for regulatory presence over the crypto market, a high-profile industry lawsuit looks poised to answer more questions about how far its authority should reach. Lawyers defending Ishan Wahi – a former Coinbase manager accused of insider trading – are challenging the SEC’s claim that a list...Read More
A New Hampshire district court judge has clarified that a security injunction ruled earlier in the legal battle between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and decentralized content-sharing and publishing platform LBRY applied only to direct sales of the project’s tokens. The ruling came during an appeal hearing on January 30, 2023, settling...Read More
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is targeting investment advisors for potentially offering digital asset custody to its clients without meeting proper criteria. Citing three unnamed sources, Reuters reported that the Commission is probing advisers’ efforts to follow the rules around custody of clients’ digital assets after the implosion of FTX. The investigation...Read More
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected the joint effort of Ark Investment Management and 21Shares to list a spot Bitcoin ETF on the Cboe BZX Exchange. The agency dismissed another application filed by the partners in the spring of 2022. As indicated in a recent filing, the American financial regulator did not...Read More
Mango Markets’ exploiter Avraham Eisenberg was hit with a lawsuit by Mango Labs, the company behind the DeFi protocol, for $47 million in damages. The Wednesday filing with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York alleges that Eisenberg executed a malicious attack on Mango Markets by manipulating the native token,...Read More
Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, has blamed the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its failed plans to go public. According to a new report by FT, the regulatory agency failed to sign off on the $9 billion deal. This comes a month after its CEO Jeremy Allaire revealed the termination of...Read More
The world’s largest digital asset manager – Grayscale – will reportedly present its arguments in court regarding the potential launch of a Bitcoin ETF in the US on March 7. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will argue against this. The Lawsuit is Approaching Grayscale has displayed its intentions to introduce an exchange-traded...Read More
The long, drawn-out battle between fintech firm Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission could be coming to a conclusion, according to the company CEO. Speaking to CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 18, Garlinghouse said that the judges are unlikely to rush a resolution, adding: “We’re optimistic that...Read More
Victims of the Ponzi scheme BitConnect may finally find some respite. The United States District Court for the Southern District of California ordered over $17 million in restitution to be distributed to nearly 800 victims from over 40 different countries due to their investment losses in BitConnect, which defrauded thousands of investors across the world....Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a complaint against Genesis Global Capital and Gemini Trust Company for allegedly selling unregistered securities to retail investors in the US. The SEC is seeking permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, plus front-end interest and civil penalties. Both companies raised billions of dollars by offering and...Read More
Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reportedly launched an investigation against the distressed cryptocurrency platform Zipmex. The watchdog will inspect whether the latter breached some domestic rules when offering digital asset services and products. More Problems for Zipmex According to a Bloomberg coverage, the top financial regulator of Thailand will probe the bankrupt Zipmex for...Read More
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Neil Chandran and seven other individuals and entities for orchestrating the fraudulent cryptocurrency investment scheme called CoinDeal. The suspects allegedly defrauded investors with around $45 million over the years and used the money to buy real estate, cars, and a boat. Halting the Crime The SEC accused Neil Chandran,...Read More
The US Securities and Exchange Commission has reportedly asked some FTX investors whether they conducted proper research on the cryptocurrency exchange before becoming its clients. Recall that the platform (considered among the giants in its field) crashed in November, causing multi-billion losses and shaking the entire market to its core. As reported by Reuters, the...Read More
In a filing on Jan. 4, the financial regulator submitted a limited objection and reservation of rights. The SEC is pushing back on Binance’s U.S. division’s plan to buy bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital in a deal valued at around $1 billion. According to the agency, the purchase agreement does not include sufficient detail about...Read More
Robert Kiyosaki believes the US regulators will go hard against most alternative coins once they are classified as securities. As such, the author of several best-seller books continues to invest only in bitcoin, which the CFTC and even the SEC have said is a commodity. Kiyosaki on BTC and Altcoins The 75-years old US entrepreneur,...Read More
Cryptocurrency exchange OKX released its second Proof of Reserves (PoR) on its website on December 22nd. The new report would enable users to view and self-verify the results of two PoRs with the help of open-source tools, the company said in an official statement. OKX also promised to publish the PoR report every month. OKX’s Proof-of-Reserves...Read More
The US Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Dan Berkovitz will step down from his General Counsel position as of the end of January 2023. The current SEC Principal Deputy General Counsel – Megan Barbero – will replace Berkovitz upon his departure. SEC Chair Gary Gensler said he was “grateful” for Berkovitz’s “exceptional public service...Read More
The SEC is stepping up its scrutiny of crypto auditors as it continues to wage war against the digital asset industry. In the latest in a recent torrent of anti-crypto articles, the Wall Street Journal has reported that there will be more dissection of the work that audit firms are doing for crypto companies. According...Read More
Grayscale may consider a 20% tender offer on GBTC shares if its bid to convert into a Bitcoin spot ETF ultimately fails, said CEO Michael Sonnenshein to investors on Monday. In an interview on the same day, the executive also commented on the FTX’s collapse, the crypto bear market, and the state of Binance. Shoring...Read More
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved WisdomTree’s nine blockchain-enabled funds. According to the official press release, the new digital funds will reflect different exposures, with each of them investing in traditional assets, but will not track crypto assets. However, the firm will leverage Stellar or Ethereum blockchains as a secondary record of...Read More
The FTX collapse spurred action from yet another financial watchdog. The Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is gearing up to impose more stringent regulations on crypto assets similar to that of the global market in a bid to protect investors. According to Bangkok Post, the SEC said that regulators should play a greater role...Read More
